


under the weight of living

by Imnotweirdjustwriting



Category: Night at the Museum (Movies)
Genre: Claustrophobia, First Kiss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 01:23:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17777906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imnotweirdjustwriting/pseuds/Imnotweirdjustwriting
Summary: Larry and Ahkmenrah are forced to face their feelings after one of them becomes stuck in a closet





	under the weight of living

**Author's Note:**

> y’all just need to know while typing this my phone kept changing ahkmenrah to anime rag
> 
>  
> 
> Title from Weight of Living by Bastille

It didn't take long until helping Larry with his nightly rounds became a habit of Ahkmenrah’s. He met him in the lobby every evening, caught for a moment in Larry’s smile. 

“Hey,” Larry said because he always seemed to lose his words when he spoke to Ahkmenrah. 

“Hey,” Ahkmenrah mimicked back, granting Larry with a smile of his own. “What do we have to do tonight?”

Larry took a moment to go over his list, muttering to himself as he made a plan. “We should start with putting some stuff in storage.”

“Who?” Ahkmenrah asked like he wasn’t worried. 

“No one, just some old banners,” Larry assured him. “You guys aren’t getting shoved in storage on my watch.”

“Thank you, Larry,” Ahkmenrah said softly. 

Larry brushed a hand against his shoulder in a casual display of affection. Or maybe not affection, maybe he was reading into it. He didn’t know. 

“Ready?” Larry asked, his hand dropping. 

Ahkmenrah cleared his throat before answering. “Yes.”

Larry lead them both back into the museum, greeting each exhibit they passed on the way. He finally stopped in one of the back rooms, pulling out a few boxes from under a desk. 

“These are it,” he said, pulling out the end of a banner to show 

They were for a temporary exhibit that Ahkmenrah barely even remembered anymore. He had never seen it, just heard it in his nights alone. He shook the thought out of his head before it took over. 

“Cool,” he said instead, because he couldn’t think of anything else to say. “Where do they go?”

Larry gestured at one of the closets set into the wall among the lockers. “In there. It should be unlocked.”

Ahkmenrah opened the door for Larry, quickly following him in. The box was heavy, and it took both of them to lift it onto one of the shelves, Larry keeping one hand on the door to keep it open. 

“Got it?” Larry asked him, lowering his hand. 

“Yes,” Ahkmenrah said, keeping his hands on the box to steady it. 

“I’ll grab the other one then we should be all set,” Larry said, already moving towards the door. 

“Wait—“ Ahkmenrah started before everything came crashing down. 

His hands stayed firmly on the box as Larry stepped out of the closet. He removed his hand to grab the box, and the door swung shut behind him. 

“Larry,” Ahkmenrah said towards the closed door, his hands snapped back to his sides. 

“Oops, sorry,” he heard Larry say on the other side of the door. “Hold on.”

The doorknob rattled but the door stayed shut. 

“Larry,” he repeated, his throat already feeling tight. 

“It must be stuck,” Larry assured him, the handle still shaking.

Ahkmenrah moved away from the shelf, glancing around in the darkness. There was a slim beam of light from under the door, but his eyes still weren’t adjusted. His chest felt like it was collapsing.

“I swear I can get it open,” Larry said, though his voice already sounded strained. 

“Please, if you could,” Ahkmenrah said to the door.

The dark was starting to become more clear, but every breath that he took made the room shrink. He pulled his headdress off, letting it fall to the floor. 

He couldn’t be trapped again. Not when he’d only just gotten out. He ran his hands through his hair, yanking at the roots in his panic. 

He reached for the door handle, pulling on it desperately. It didn’t budge.

“Larry, please,” he said, one step away from pounding his hands against the door. 

His breath was coming quickly, the rapid rise and fall of his heart sending his head spinning. He could hardly stand, everything was so dizzy. 

He sank to the floor, his back cracking against the door as he practically collapsed. 

“Ank?” Larry asked through the door. “Are you okay?”

Ahkmenrah’s throat felt too tight to even speak but he managed a weak, “Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

He felt a strangled laugh escape his throat despite everything. “I don’t like this,” he said simply. 

“I can figure this out,” Larry tried to assure him, but he didn’t sound sure. 

Ahkmenrah tipped his head back against the door, the cool metal flattening his hair to his head. 

“I can’t be trapped again,” he said into the air. 

“What?” Larry said, and he could hear him standing up. “No, Ahk, don’t think like that.”

Ahkmenrah curled in on himself, tucking his head between his knees. “I can’t do this. I can’t sit here all night and freeze in the morning and wake up still here tomorrow, I can’t,” his voice cracked at the end and he couldn’t even be bothered. 

“I’m going to get you out of there,” Larry promised. 

“Why?” Ahkmenrah said, his voice dripping with something rotten. “Everyone else left me in there to rot.” He took a shaky breath, years and years of suffocation pressing down on him. “They left me there but I couldn’t die.

“Don’t say that,” Larry said, and he sounded closer this time. “This was an accident I promise I’ll get you out.”

“Why?” Ahkmenrah demanded again. “Why would you do that why does it matter.” Leave me in here, he wanted to say. Leave me to myself another four thousand years and see what happens. 

“I can’t leave you in there,” Larry said again. “I can’t, Ahk, I care about you too much.”

“Sure,” Ahkmenrah said bitterly. “Suddenly someone cares.”

“I do,” Larry insisted. 

Ahkmenrah imagined him there for a moment, his back against the door too. 

“I do care about you. I really do.”

“You don’t,” Ahkmenrah said, but he didn’t mean it. 

“No, I care about you.” He heard Larry stand up. “I care about you, dammit, and I’m going to open this door and I’m going to be here with you again.”

He moved away from the door and Ahkmenrah was left with his thoughts again. The darkness seemed like a physical weight and his heart was breaking out of his chest because he was scared and because Larry cared about him, actually cared about him like no one else had for so long and he wanted to desperately for it to mean something but he was trapped in a goddamn closet. 

The door gave a vicious shake, then swung open, banging against the wall behind it. 

“Ahk—,” Larry started, but Ahkmenrah already had his arms around him and was hugging him so tightly, tight enough that he couldn’t slip away through his fingers. 

“I’m so sorry,” Larry finished, hugging him back. His hands brushed the nape of Ahkmenrah’s neck and his breathing slowed. 

“You care about me,” he told Larry, because he needed to know what it meant. 

“I do,” Larry said. “I care about you, a lot.”

They were face to face now, looking at each other like they were seeing each other for the first time.   
“Larry,” Ahkmenrah started, but Larry’s lips were already against his and they were kissing and he was free and it was everything in one moment and incredible. 

He was captivated in the best way yet, Larry’s arms around him the only thing holding him together. 

They broke apart quickly, both smiling too hard to continue. 

“You care about me,” Ahkmenrah said once more.

“Yeah,” Larry said, lacing their fingers together. “I do.”

**Author's Note:**

> Professor: please write 1k for your workshop piece  
> Me watching NATM for the fifth time this week: 
> 
>  
> 
> This could be better so let’s see if I rewrite it + a second idea ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
